Witches, witches everywhere 2 !
by israelhusky
Summary: Lawhinie Hackwrench, the black witch, was defeated and almost killed in the fields nearby St. Pierre, France. Humilliated, now she searches for allies and new powers within the city of Paris. How deep in the darkness is she willing to go in order to get her revenge?
1. Chapter 1 - Alive in my memories

**Chapter 1 – Alive in my memories**

Sabrina was supposed to stand and wait at the main door of the manor. Her master would leave to Paris tonight and it was her duty as a maid to be there to bid farewell and safe travels. That and to deliver her master a backpack filled to the top with various travel supplies. Better encumbered than sorry... And yet, as soon as the silver light of the moon penetrated through the windows, thus breaking the darkness of the old house, the girl couldn't help but be attracted to the painting that dominated the main hall from its place over the hearth. The way light and darkness were playing tricks with the faces of the family depicted on that large portrait mesmerized the girl, who started to levitate her ghostly, ethereal body in melancholic silence to take a better look at the blue eyes of one of the girls painted in oil. From there, her mind traveled back in time until the day the painter delivered the final brushes to these eyes in that very same hall...

"And... done!" proclaimed the famous gerbil painter Lawrence Willmann. "You can move now if you wish. Stretch, rest, have some water..."

Geegaw Hackwrench, renowned alchemist, rubbed the back of his neck and quickly walked to the painter's side to admire the finished work. His twin daughters ran out of the room gleefully, feeling relieved after three hours of standing still. Isabel, the wife of Geegaw, just contented herself with drinking a glass of red wine from the nearby cabinet.

"Wonderful!" exclaimed Geegaw truly astonished. "Herr Willmann, I couldn't believe it possible, but you have made my wife and girls look even more beautiful! Like angels sent from heaven! Izzy, come here and take a look!"

The blue-eyed, blonde mouse in rich red and black satin dress walked towards the portrait, glass of wine in hand. "For the price you asked, Herr Willmann, I actually expect you have painted me more glorious than the pope! If not, then..." She tilted forward to examine the painting, while the painter gulped nervously fearing the worst. Her husband, however, didn't notice the artist's uneasiness. His eyes were fixed on the way Isabel's bright and flossy hair, tied in a long braid and adorned with gold garments, which was falling elegantly over her left shoulder.

"Not bad..." the female mouse admitted. "Finally someone managed to capture my aristocratic air... not like the other so-called 'artists' we hired before you. And the freckles... yes, disguised as I ordered. An acceptable work, I must say" Isabel took another sip of wine disdainfully.

"Oh come on, Izzy..." Geegaw complained playfully. "I like your freckles!"

"Well I don't like them, dear husband... If I'm going to be immortalized for future generations in a portrait, it better shows exactly what I want it to show!"

"And... what about our daughters? They look like little princesses, don't they?"

Isabel took a quick look at the images of the twin girls. Gadget, always with that absent expression on her face. Only God knows what was that girl musing over while old Willmann painted her over the canvas. Lawhinie, on the other hand, had taken the family portrait session more seriously. She put on her favorite clothes and makeup, and even adorned her hair with a flower from the garden. But then again, there was it, that snarl and defiant stare that always made the girl look like a little demon. Isabel sighed heavily. Couldn't her daughters be... normal?

Just then, the girls in question rushed into the room. They stopped right in front of the family portrait and stared at it at the same time, examining the images with curiosity. Their parents and the painter alike fell silent, waiting for the inevitable critique.

"Herr painter!" exclaimed Lawhinie upset, while her sister continued the examination. "You forgot to paint my servant!"

"Uh? what servant, little one?" replied the old artist a bit confused.

"Sabrina, of course!" continued Lawhinie glaring at him. "She sat next to me the whole time!"

"W-who did you say?"

Isabel took Lawhinie violently by her arm and apologized to Willmann. "Oh never mind my girl... she is talking about her imaginary friend! You know, kids these days!"

Lawhinie glanced at her mother with rage. "No! I already told you, mom! Sabrina is real, and she is my faithful servant! Let me go look for her so she can be painted at my side!"

"Lawhinie, quiet now!" ordered Isabel angered. "We've talked about this before! Do you want me to send you to the asylum? Where all the crazy humans and rodents are locked forever?"

"What? No! I don't want to go there!"

"Izzy, please..." Geegaw tried to calm down her wife. Then, he picked up Lawhinie on his arms. The scared girl promptly wrapped her arms tight around him. "Sweetie, what do you say if we go out and look together for your friend at the gardens?"

"Oh sure dad!" The girl nodded. "She likes to bring me flowers for my hair. She must be there now...".

"Geegaw!" Isabel protested. "Don't encourage her!"

"Come on Izzy, let the kids be kids! Gadget, want to come with us?"

But Gadget was in her own world, staring intently at the portrait. Suddenly, she turned back to old Willmann with a curious look on her face. "Herr painter" she asked innocently. "What is the color green made of?"

"Green? Well... green is made of blue and yellow, my dear" the painter explained.

"Oh I already know that! Let me rephrase the question... what are the ingredients you use to create the green paint?"

"Ahh the ingredients! Well, all my paints come from the human workshop near the market. In there they mix color pigments, linseed oils, turpentine..."

Young Gadget tipped her chin pensive. "Mmhh... turpentine"

Lawhinie overheard the conversation between Gadget and Willmann and shook her head. "Gadget, you are so boring..."

"Now now..." Geegaw patted Lawhinie's shoulder. "Knowledge is never boring. Maybe one day your sister will create new colors for paints or clothes, can you imagine it?"

"I imagine we would become richer..." noted Isabel mockingly.

"Herr painter, can I borrow this?" asked Gadget picking up the green paint can.

"Sure sweetheart, what will you..."

"Thanks!" said Gadget, who immediately ran upstairs to her room.

"Have fun sweetie!" exclaimed Geegaw with a broad smile. "Now Lawhinie, let's go to the garden so you can tell me more about your servant. Do you pay her well?"

"I give her cookies, but she doesn't eat them, so I think she likes to work for free"

"Oh I see". Father and daughter walked out through the main door.

Upon being witness of her family's antics, Isabel decided it was time for another sip of wine.

"My lady..." Old Willmann interrupted her musings, visibly distressed. "About that imaginary friend of your daughter..."

"Don't worry about it..." Isabel replied with a dismissive gesture. "It's just a silly game of her"

"Actually, I just remembered a girl with that name that used to live nearby..." Suddenly, Willmann opened her eyes wide. "No!, she lived in this same house! Many years ago. God, many decades ago!"

The mother of the twins arched her brow. "What the heck are you talking about?"

"It's actually a very sad story" Willmann sighed and shook his head. "Her name was Sabrina Voigt. Such a gentle and lively girl! Always smiling, singing, dancing around. She and the rest of the town's kids used to play hide and seek after school, and since she couldn't resist to sing or whistle some melody while hiding, it was pretty easy to spot her. She was an aristocrat, but a kind one, not like..." Willmann stopped abruptly upon seeing Isabel's irritated stare.

"Continue..."

"Anyway, one day Sabrina fell in love with the son of a wealthy banker. Seriously in love. Soon she stopped playing with us as her whole attention was dedicated to him. The boy received songs, poems and all kind of innocent gifts from our friend... but it wasn't enough for him. He deluded the poor girl for some weeks and then broke her heart. Sabrina was left devastated. She stopped to sing, to play, even stopped to eat... I suppose she thought she wasn't good enough to be that guy's girlfriend. Then, out of despair, she... umm..."

"She... what?" The blonde mouse tapped her fingers impatiently, not noticing the watered eyes of the old gerbil.

"She... committed suicide. Poisoned herself in her own room"

"My, what an idiot!"

Willmann dismissed that last comment and just wiped the tears away with his handkerchief. "After that scandal, both families moved away and this house was put on sale. And... yeah, now I remember... that poor girl's room was over there, at the north corner of the upper floor. I know that because she once invited us here to show us her collection of puppets! That night she performed a play with them. gosh, it was so fun!"

_"That's Lawhinie's room..."_ Isabel mused slightly perturbed. "And... just out of curiosity... what did your late friend Sabrina Voigt looked like?"

"Well, I was very young when she died, but I mostly remember her red hair. Short but wild red hair tied in a pair of little braids that fell on her shoulders. She was a pretty mousette. Slim, gracious and kind, so very kind. Joyful too, at least until he met that boy.. You know my lady, now that I think of it, I'm probably the only one left who still remembers her"

Isabel decided that was a good moment to end the conversation. "What an interesting tale, Herr Willmann... but hey, look at the clock! It's getting late and I don't want to take anymore of your precious time. Come with me, I'll show you the exit so you can go and keep remembering your friend in the comfort of your own house"

The painter tried to protest as he was dragged by Isabel to the exit door. "But, your daughter mentioned..."

"Oh please" Isabel said as she led Willmann outside. "I'm sure Lawhinie heard that name at the market and liked it. It's a very common name. And catchy"

"I guess you are right" admitted the old artist downheartedly.

"Of course I'm right! Here, fifteen gold nuggets for the portrait, as we agreed. Also... _sigh_ one more nugget for the can of paint my daughter Gadget took from you."

"Oh she is a lovely girl! And Lawhinie too!"

"Sure they are! Auf Wiedersehen, Herr Willmann!" Isabel closed the door on the painter's face. "Damn, for a moment I thought he would start crying on me! What a"

Suddenly, a noise like glass shattering came from the main hall, where she had been a minute ago.

On the floor next to the portrait stand, the bottle of wine Isabel was drinking from was indeed shattered to pieces and its contents spilled all over the floor. Also, a flower from the garden was laying nearby. The blonde mouse stared at the scene in somber silence.

_"Just great..."_ She pondered. _"Not only I have to stand being married to a fool of a wizard and having two weird girls as daughters... now it turns out we moved into a haunted house... sheesh, the things I do for gold!"_

With cold blood and lidded eyes, Isabel looked around the hall. "Hey you! Idiotic, lovesick ghost girl!" she said to the walls and the ceiling. "Did I upset you? You want me to apologize? You better think twice... and guess, just guess, who will have to pick up these glass shards once she returns from the garden? Heh! That's right"

"Hey, Sabrina! What are you doing?"

The ghost snapped out from her reverie, and spinned around looking for the source of that voice. There, beneath the shadows of the hall, stood a female mouse. A female mouse with blue eyes and long blonde hair, wearing a red dress with black bodice. The maid stuttered aghast. "I-Isabel?"

"Isabel?" Lawhinie lighted up a candle passing her palm over it. "You mean my mother?" The witch wrinkled her nose at the sole mention of her parent.

"Oh excuse me, my lady Lawhinie!" the ghost bowed her head embarrassed and floated down to floor level. "I was just... uhm..."

"Never mind..." The witch dismissed it and looked up at the portrait. The moonlight had long passed by and the hall was again covered in shadows. "I don't know why I keep this painting" she complained. "The family depicted there doesn't exist anymore. I even dare to say it never existed!"

"Please don't say that! Your father and sister loved you very much!"

Lawhinie turned her candle towards the smiling, mustachoed mouse of the portrait. "My father was... he was just... heck, my mother played him like a fiddle. But both of them are long dead. And even my sister has left this house. I'm afraid you and I are the only ones left, my faithful servant." She looked back at Sabrina and gave her a grinning smile.

"Yes! However, It's a shame the painter of the portrait didn't notice me sitting at your side that whole time"

"He kind of did it" replied Lawhinie with a wink, and Sabrina joined her in complicity. There, on the portrait, one of Lawhinie's paws was being held firmly by her mother; the other paw, however... was half opened, as if gripping something in the air.

Lawhinie's smirk disappeared suddenly, as she turned around and walked towards the entrance door. "Enough of it, I'm already late to catch the night coach to Paris. I'm not looking forward to it, thought... the stench of humans sickens me! Humans and common rodents! *shudders* I just wish I was recovered enough to fly the whole distance" She touched her bandaged arm and grimaced. "Alas,I can't concentrate enough with this pain"

"But my lady, then why don't you wait some more here at home? It's been only three days since you came back…" Unconsciously, Sabrina leaned forward to hold the witch's paw.

"Because I can't!" answered Lawhinie raising her voice. She didn't notice the gesture of her servant nor her quick recoil. She just stared at the door with fiery eyes. "All my enemies are out there, plotting and making their moves! And I'm so close to turn the tables on them. I just need that damned grimoire! I will finish the job Bethany Lombardi started. I will get rid of Mephisto and his contract! I will even... even save my sister!"

The witch took a deep sigh, while her young servant looked at her with a warm, sympathetic smile. Sabrina had always suspected that deep inside, Lawhinie felt guilt for having convinced her naïve sister to sign a deal with the devil, if only to make sure the ancient legends were true.

"I thought I was strong enough" Continued the witch with her voice now breaking in rage. "but when I crossed paths with these 'heroes', I almost ended up dead"

The ghost girl cringed in silence trying not to think about that.

"So yes, I will follow Mephisto's advice one last time. I will go to Paris and find that wizard, become his apprentice... whatever it takes to grow stronger and defeat these chipmunks!"

"This is not fair" The crestfallen ghost shook her head. "It sounds so dangerous, why can't I go with you?"

"Huh? You know you can't leave this house" Answered Lawhinie turning her blue eyes to her. "As my know-it-all sister once told us, you are bounded to this place forever"

"I didn't want this to happen!" Sabrina whined disappearing and reappearing in front of her master. "I didn't imagine it when I..." Her voice broke there. She looked away hurt. "When I..."

Lawhinie noticed crystal clear tears running down her servant's pale cheeks and felt like she should do something, and so she did. She hugged the cold, ethereal figure of Sabrina and spoke softly to where her ears were supposed to be. "It's ok, girl... you had no idea. You were only fifteen years old then"

"Many girls are married at that age..." replied the ghost brokenhearted.

"Yeah, I know… _Where did I heard that before?_ Still, no need to be sad, once I become the most powerful witch of the world, I'll find the way to take you out of this house. We'll move together to the palace the humans will be forced to build for me. There I'll be crowned as the all-mighty empress of this world. And of course you will be my one and only 'maid of honour', it sounds great, doesn't it?"

"I... yes" answered Sabrina wiping her tears. "As long as I can be with you"

Lawhinie smiled at her young servant. "Of course you will! But for now, I must leave". The witch weaved her fingers and the doors of the manor opened by themselves. She grabbed the backpack by its straps and... couldn't lift it. On the contrary, the heavy backpack made her stumble some steps backwards.

"Hey, what did you put in here? Stones?"

"Oh, of course not, my lady!" Sabrina answered sheepishly. "I filled the backpack with food, camping tools, maps and a easy-to-open healing potion, which I hope you won't ever need... *tee-hee*"

"Hmpff! I see, but... how did you carried it here?" Lawhinie asked, knowing too well her ghost servant wasn't strong enough to carry even a set of dishes.

"Well, I just put the empty backpack here and brought the supplies one by one"

"Heh! You are such a smart girl" Lawhinie petted her servant's unreal braids, much to Sabrina's delight.

Once outside, The witch commanded her broom to hover at her feet. She tied the backpack to the base, mounted on the stick and floated around back to where her maid was standing. "Take care of the house for me, Sabrina. I will be back in a few weeks"

"I will, my lady... just be careful, ok?"

Lawhinie grinned full of confidence. "Let my enemies be careful of me, dear girl, for I will burn them to ashes!" Laughing madly, the blue-eyed witch rose into the air and flew away, leaving her servant waiting for the desired answer.

"Just... be careful, my dear Lawhinie" whispered Sabrina to the night sky.


	2. Chapter 2 - The long road to Paris

**Chapter 2 - The long road to Paris**

The midnight coach was just leaving behind the gates of Cologne when Lawhinie managed to land on top of it. The mouse had to sit down some seconds to catch her breath and check on her arrow wound. It really was hard to maintain her flying spell with the jolts of pain that kept coming from her right arm. Damn that bratty squirrel! Damn these heroes! She raged inwardly. That feeling didn t last long, however, because a chilling wind began to blow. Cold enough to make her have second thoughts on her choice of transport.

A long hour later, the coach made a stop at one of the many checkpoints built along the road between Germany and France. As the human passengers were requested to show their traveling documents, a freezing Lawhinie decided it wasn't worth it and climbed down into the space that lies between the luggage area and the cushions of the passenger s seats. That's where the rodent s section was located .

The blonde haired beauty in a rich satin dress didn t pass unnoticed by the fellow passengers that were already camping around a tiny-sized cage with fireflies. They all turned their eyes on Lawhinie the moment she walked closer to them.

"Oh my!" smirked a middle aged mouse with a big belly. "Looks like there is an aristocrat traveling with us today!"

"Indeed! This doesn t happen often, huh?" remarked another common mouse, this one tall and slim.

"Enough you two!" interrupted an old female mouse standing up and offering a warm blanket to the teeth chattering newcomer. "This girl is freezing! Here, young lady, take a seat with us."

"Th-Th" mumbled Lawhinie.

"Sure girl, you are welcome" answered the female mouse.

"Th-there is no bonfire?"

"Oh missie! I take you've never traveled by coach before!?" The plump mouse laughed. "Nope, we can't start a fire here or might end igniting the whole place, you know, cotton and wood is all around us"

"Indeed..." continued the female mouse. "We got to take care of our children."

"Children?" A bunch of very young mice raised their heads and looked curiously at Lawhinie. The ones who were more awake waved their paws at her with broad smiles. The witch started to have third thoughts about her choice of transport.

"Don t worry, though!" Exclaimed the slender mouse searching inside a bag. "There are many ways to stay warm besides sitting in front of a fire For example, singing and dancing all night long, romani style!"

"Sing and dance?" echoed Lawhinie incredulous.

"Of course!" Confirmed the mother, signaling the rest of her family to bring out their instruments. At once, everyone took guitars, flutes and drums out of their luggage. "All night long!"

"Oh hell no!" swore the witch inwardly.

Two hours later...

The rodent's section was peacefully quiet. The rodent family soundly asleep beneath her luggage and bags. Even the fireflies were snoring, laying on the bottom of their cage with their lights shut off. And yet, the compartment wasn't surrounded in darkness. On the contrary, a yellowish flickering light was making shadows dance while keeping all the passengers warm and cozy. The children, above all, were enjoying that comfort as far as their smiles could tell.

Well, not every of them were smiling. One of said children awoke violently from his slumber with a gasp. Startled, he crawled to her mother and shook her.

"Mom... wake up... mom!"

"Hey kid, don't awake her!"

Shocked, the young mouse raised his head and looked around for the person who scolded him in such rude way. There, on a corner, the aristocrat mouse of blonde hair who had joined them that night was sitting glaring at him. Something was off with her, the kid realized, as she was cupping in her paws a hovering ball of fire. That's where the surrounding light was coming from. And that same combination of light and shadows was turning the aristocrat's face into something terrifying for a young boy to withstand. He promptly bowed his head to avoid Lawhinie's gaze. "I... I'm sorry. Please, don't eat me!"

"Eat you? And why would I do that?"

"Because..." The boy gulped, and dared to watch at Lawhinie with the corner of his eye. "You are... you must be... a witch?"

"Ah, maybe, maybe not... In any case, I have plenty of food in my backpack, thank you very much" Lawhinie followed her own words by taking a big sandwich out and biting it in front of the kid. He couldn't help but to stare at the witch munching the deliciously looking snack.

"So, why are you not asleep like the rest of your family?" asked the witch bluntly while wiping the crumbs away with her pink silk napkin. "Ah, never mind kid... I'll just make you sleep again"

"I don't feel like sleeping anymore..." the little one whined. "I had that bad dream again... and mommy always helps me to..."

"A bad dream?" Lawhinie interrupted him grinning wolfishly. "You mean a nightmare? Now that's interesting! Come here and tell me more about it, kid" Lawhinie let go the ball of fire, which kept floating nearby, providing just the exact amount of heat to keep them warm but without setting the materials around in fire.

"Um... well..." The boy walked towards Lawhinie while glancing at the flame. "I dreamt that my family is so poor that we have to live in the sewers... and then my dad arrives with a bag of rocks to eat. Rocks instead of bread, and mom gives us green slime instead of soup and I don't want to eat it. It's disgusting, But to my brothers it's fine, is like normal food to them. Then I puke dirt and everyone stare and yell at me"

The young mouse ended his story abruptly, as he was now sobbing and rubbing his wet eyes. Then, he smelled something good. Butter, cheese and salami. He looked up and found out that Lawhinie was offering him a portion of her own sandwich. His grief quickly turned in a broad smile.

"It's... for me? Wow! thank you!" After a chew, he added: "its so delicious"

Suddenly, Lawhinie looked away puzzled by what she had just done. "Don't thank me" She answered nervously. "My servant made it. Just eat it!"

"Oh..." Said the kid looking at the tasty gift. "So, what's your servant's name?"

"...Sabrina" answered the witch casually, looking at her own portion of buttered bread.

"Well, thank you and Sabrina!" He exclaimed and then took another chew. Lawhinie couldn't help but smirk, imagining the reaction of her dear servant at such joyful and innocent gratitude. For some seconds, both witch and kid ate in silence, watching at the dance of the flame that was keeping them warm.

After wiping her lips, Lawhinie was the first to speak again. "So, what's your name, boy?"

"I'm Timothy Traugott, my lady, but everyone calls me..."

"So, Timmy, your worst nightmare is to be poor and starve in a filthy sewer, huh?"

Timothy gulped his last piece of meal and looked down. "Yes my lady. I don't want to be poor! I don't want to be... hungry..." Then, bit by bit, he rose his head and stared at the fire. Lawhinie could notice sparks reflected on the kid's dark eyes. "But I will be rich someday!" the kid stated with renewed enthusiasm. "Like, really rich! I will have lots of gold nuggets, then I will buy plenty of food, then a nice house in Paris for my parents and younger brothers with nice curtains and toys and servants and then..." The boy blushed and kicked his legs back and forth. "Then I will marry a pretty princess! Someone as pretty as you, my lady!"

Lawhinie smiled at the innocent wish of that boy. "As pretty as me? Why, thanks kid! Now... what about if I tell you a story about someone who wanted exactly the same things as you?"

The boy's ears perked up with curiosity. "He wanted to be rich too?"

"Oh yes he did!" The witch began. "His name was Geegaw Hackwrench and he was a poor but talented alchemist from Cologne"

"What's an alchemist?" asked Timmy .

"What, you don't know? geez! An alchemist is someone very smart who creates potions, drugs, ointments and jewels by combining different ingredients. Well, they sometimes use a bit of magic... and this one, Geegaw Hackwrench, was the best alchemist of the world. He was so smart that one day, after years of study, discovered how to transform lead into gold!"

"Really? Lead into gold!? That's amazing!" Exclaimed the boy wide-eyed. "So, he became rich?"

"Of course! Rich and famous among alchemists and wizards. He had to keep the secret from normal people like you, but anyway... he moved from the slums to the elegant side of the city and mounted a big laboratory beneath the walls of the human university of Cologne, where he continued his experiments and transformed a lot more of lead pellets into gold. He bought rich clothes, a nice manor next to the Augustusburg Palace's gardens and more importantly... he got married to a very pretty girl from the nobility. She later gave him two girls. A family."

"And he lived happily ever after?"

"Actually... no. Listen close. His wife turned out to be an abusive and manipulative woman, a greedy and drunk harpy who mistreated him and her own daughters. Only interested in wealth and titles. Poor Geegaw was never able to stand against her, blinded in love as he was. Totally blinded. That monster forced the house servants to quit and flee the manor, which only worsened the situation..."

Timmy raised his paw and interrupted the tale again. "Then that woman... she was a witch?"

"A witch?" replied Lawhinie laughing. "Of course not, she was just an idiot!... it was a miracle her daughters grew up mentally sane. Anyway, This fool woman convinced Geegaw to teach her the procedure to turn lead to gold. She wanted to create more gold for herself, of course, but the lovesick husband though she had a sincere interest on science and his work. So he started to explain the steps and how his machine at the laboratory worked until one night... she insisted on run the experiment herself with way too many ingredients. That was a huge miscalculation from her part; the machine exploded and kill both Geegaw and her. I'll spare you the gruesome details, but to be fair, Geegaw died while trying to save her. After that, nobody cared about the orphan girls they had left behind. People just wanted to find out how that machine worked, but Geegaw didn't left many notes, he was so smart he didn't need to write down the steps or ingredients. Time passed on, some more accidents occurred and the church end up prohibiting any more experiments. Today, nobody remembers poor Geegaw or his surviving daughters"

"That is very sad tale..." Concluded Timmy with a sympathetic shook of his head.

"Well, sad tales have better teachings than happy tales" Lawhinie shrugged. "What do you think is the lesson here?"

That was an easy question for Timmy. "Be careful who you marry?"

"Exactly!" The witch gave him a wink. "Or you wife can become your ruin"

"Yeah! That woman from your tale was evil, my lady. I still think she was a disguised witch!" The kid regretted these words as soon as he uttered them. Covering his mouth, he turned to Lawhinie and found her gaze had turned cold and dangerous.

"Enough for now, Timothy... it s time you go back to sleep"

Timmy tried to apologize bowing his head. "Oh, I m sorry my lady, I didn t..."

Lawhinie interrupted him abruptly. "Stop it, kid. It s past midnight and I d like to be alone now"

"No, please! Let me stay here with you! I'll sorry for what I said! You are a good witch!"

"There aren't such things as good witches, Timmy. Seriously, I want to be alone!" With a pass of her paw over his face, Timmy fell asleep immediately, sat next to the witch. With a quick weave of her fingers, Lawhinie made him walk to his mother's side, where he cuddled and started to snooze. The witch, back on her brooding state, whispered to the air: "Mother... you give us witches a bad name"

A new morning came, and the plump mouse welcome it with a big yawn and the mandatory limb's stretch. Upon opening his eyes, he found her wife already handing out slices of cheese to their kids. His brother, the slim mouse, was absently contemplating the road by a crevice in the wood plank of the compartment.

"Good morning, dear" Greeted the female mouse.

"Good morning, sweetie!" greeted her back the proud husband. "Oh boy, I hadn't sleep so good in ages... I knew making this trip would be good for my health!"

"It seems we all slept like rocks" Fred commented his brother. "It must be the clean air of the countryside." The mouse took a deep and pleasant breath. "I could get used to it"

"Well..." Commented Timmy almost casually, looking down at his slice of cheese. "I again had that dream about the sewers"

"Oh my poor baby!" exclaimed his mother hugging him tight. "Why didn't you awake me?"

"Umm, I tried mom, but you were so deeply asleep. But don't worry, I m not afraid of that dream anymore because, you know... I already decided what will I become when I grow up!"

Timmy's whole family turned to him expectantly. The boy just puffed his chest and glanced at a still asleep Lawhinie. "I will become an alchemist!"


	3. Chapter 3 - The witch's friend

**Chapter 3 - The witch's friend **

The remaining of Lawhinie's trip to Paris was uneventful and calm. Maybe too calm, what with the whole Traugott family falling asleep every time the words 'music' or 'dance' were spoken in their aristocrat companion's presence. They never made the connection, though, concluding that their slumber was caused due to the never ending, monotonous sounds of the horseshoes against the road. Besides, who would seriously complain for deep, repairing and pleasant extra hours of rest?

More than once, the witch used the spell on herself.

Also, Over the course of the days, Lawhinie managed to convince Timothy he dreamt the whole fireball episode and that she was as normal as any other blue-blood aristocrat around. Totally not a witch. The kid even got a reprimand from his parents for calling her so. To make up for his son's rudeness, mom and dad appointed Timothy to Lawhinie's service for the remainder of the trip. Little Timmy didn't complain.

Almost a week after departing from Cologne, the stagecoach ran up a hill and, on the horizon, the walled city of Paris appeared bathed in the orange light of the evening. Quite a sight! Paris was an enclosed labyrinth of buildings, gardens, monuments, churches and palaces. A pumping heart for France and Europe split in two by the majestic river Senne. For the driver of the coach and his passengers (human and non-human) the scene was breathtaking. Timothy, who had grew fond of Lawhinie during these days crammed together in the luggage compartment, smiled her way. Lawhinie returned the gesture with a wry little grin.

A pair of hours later, the stagecoach arrived and stopped at its last station in the northern quarter of Paris. The passengers started to descend, stretching their legs and commending the driver for a safe, successful trip. On the bowels of the coach, the Traugott family also got ready to jump off.

"And... where is lady Lawhinie?" Asked Fred Traugott looking around. The blonde mouse was nowhere to be seen.

"I guess the girl already left" Her wife pointed to where Lawhinie's backpack should be, now an empty spot. "How rude, she didn't even say goodbye"

Fred shrugged. "Boy! These snobbish aristocrats"

Timothy's shoulders slumped, looking with sadness at the corner where he dreamt of Lawhinie, the floating fireball and the tale of Geegaw Hackwrench. h"Why? It was a fun trip up to this last moment"/h the boy sulked. But then again, his father was right. She was nobility and they were... peasants. Poor peasants.

The Traugott family abandoned the stagecoach and started to walk down the street towards the nearest rodent hostel. Above them, floating in a broomstick against the bright moon, a blonde mouse gave them a last look and a grin. Then, she swiftly flew to the opposite direction, toward the center of Paris.

* * * *

The witch's self confidence improved by every minute she was able to maintain her flying spell. Yes, after a week recovering from that nasty arrow injury, her arm, her whole body, was boiling with hellish determination again. A fire in her heart fueled by ambitions of power and desires of revenge. A shrieking hunger for more, always more. Lawhinie, the pyromaniac witch, really felt like turning herself into a big exploding fireball and let know everyone in Paris, humans and animals alike, that their future empress had arrived to make them bend to their knees.

Although, she first needed to find that wizard.

Lawhinie applied brakes in the middle of the air. Brakes and a a full circular turn to the right to finally come to a halt. Looking down at the never-sleeping city, at its bright quarters surrounding black patches of shadows, at the crowded streets and busy riverports, at its farms just outside the walls, Lawhinie started to realize how vague were the instructions from her master.

"So, go and find this powerful wizard who lives in Paris, huh? More like finding a needle in a haystack! I simply can't feel any magical presence nearby"

The blonde witch gave some more turns, unsure of where to go next. There were so many places to search for a rodent wizard in Paris. Theaters, circuses, towers, the underground, graveyards. Heck, he could even be living in one of these farms outside the walls...

Lawhinie growled as she made another full circular turn. "Where to go, where to go? Maybe... maybe some of Mephisto's servants in the inquisition could guide me. "No, wait" The witch dismissed that last idea. Undoubtedly, the french inquisition would be looking for her after the attack on Lucien Montblanc and his company of soldiers. Or wouldn't they? After all, Gadget was on that crime scene too. Would the inquisitors believe Lawhinie if she told them the attack on the high priest was Gadget group's fault?"

"Ah, of course!" The witch snapped her fingers. "Finn would totally buy that lie!"

Finnegan Joyce, or Finn for short, was the residing inquisitorial scribe in Paris. A young, short and quiet mouse with outsanding writing and reading skills. Proficient in english, french, latin translations. Also, he had a big crush on Lawhinie. Finnegan wasn't an active member of the clergy. In fact, he was one of many sons of a famous scottish merchant. Rumors said, that he was kidnapped by bandits when he was just a 4 years old boy. Fortunately, his family paid his ransom, but little Finn ended up with a mild case of agoraphobia: fear to people and open spaces. In any case, Finnegan's anxiety disorders made him unfit to continue the family's lineage and so, the poor boy spent his childhood hidden among books, ink and paper. Soon he learned to read and write in french and latin, unique and regarded skills on those days. His father, being the business mouse he was, practically sold his disabled-yet-gifted son to the inquisitors, and poor Finnegan moved from a library full of numbers and knowledge to another filled with horrors and crimes: The parisinian inquisition archives.

The scribe spent the first two years translating search warrants to different languages and keeping records of the many activities the inquisitorial headquarters was involved. After that amount of time, the mouse had thought he had seen and heard everything the inquisition - and its local leader Julien Montblanc - were willing to do... That is, until the day they held a dinner for a wish granting demon. Mephisto arrived that night not as a cat, but in the shape of a mouse. An elegant mouse with good manners and a pleasant voice. Soon he won the attention and confidence of all the inquisitors gathered in the dinner hall. Front the point of view of Finnegan, Mephisto was very much like his father; A business mouse (mouse?) with a silver tongue, eager to please first to make profits later. It was then, when Mephisto introduced his two companions to the crowd, that Finnegan's life took an unexpected turn. It was then that a pair of real witches entered the hall: Lawhinie Hackwrench and her twin sister Gadget. It was, as is said, love at first sight. While Gadget looked to him like a reflection of himself, with even the same apprehensive gestures on her face, Lawhinie was the complete opposite. She had the air of a rich spoiled girl, full of herself and ready to eat the whole world. She grinned with wolfish confidence the moment she lifted her bent witch hat and her blazing blue eyes stared directly at the gathered inquisitors. For a moment, it seemed like the demon inside the room was her and not Mephisto. Of course, everyone bowed chivalrously to greet her and her timid sister. Everyone, except poor Finnegan, who stood there like an idiot with her mouth hung opened. And maybe that was for the best, as Lawhinie took immediate notice of him. The next thing the scribe remembered, the blazing witch insisted on sit next to him at the dinner table, god knows why. Back at the present, that same blazing witch arrived at the inquisition palace.

The inquisition palace was a magnificent, luxurious building given by the King of France to the church as a 'gift'. Oh, the rage these humans felt the night when an unknown anarquist provoked a fire that engulfed and wrecked down the whole east wing of the building. Such heretic was still on the run. Of course, the idea of a squirrel and a cat as culprits never crossed the minds of the city guard.

The witch had been there before, last time almost two months ago, when she and Gadget were summoned by Julien Montblanc itself. The priest commander asked them to escort their badly injured master to the safety of Cologne. The attack on the HQ was so unexpected, so destructive and its outcome still so unclear, that the high priest was certain that Bethany or her companions were still lurking around, waiting for the chance to finish the job. And a wish granting demon was too valuable to take that risk.

Ironically, it was on that day of loyalty display that the seed of betray was planted in the blonde witch's mind. The opportunity to get rid of both her contract and contractor at the same time, to finish the hero's job although for different selfish reasons. However, it wasn't so simple as backstabbing Mephisto right there. She didn't know yet the extent of the white mage's spell on her master nor the possible consequences of her brass actions. What if after killing the mortal body of Mephisto he turns back to his demonic form right in front of her? Or even worse, what if her magical powers die together with the cat? Too many questions... And so Lawhinie played servant one more time. Along with Gadget, she made use of warping stones to allow Mephisto the cat to disappear and appear in the city of Cologne. "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer" was the thought that appeased the witch's conflicted mind that day.

The witch flew by the outer gates of the manor and made her way across the now overgrown, untidy garden. As expected, everything was covered in darkness. The human inquisitors had moved after the arson to a new palace, but their rodent counterparts were still around, dwelling in the crevices under the ruins.

Making sure not to be seen by the guards and priests, Lawhinie made her way inside and into the archive. There, she found her friend, hunched over his desk and busy on copying a document under the light of a candle.

"Finny!" The scribe jumped off his seat, but promptly recovered upon realizing the blonde beauty that came into his room.

"L-lady Lawhinie!? Is that you?"

"Of course it's me!" Answered the witch getting closer while wearing her best feigned smile. "Who else calls you Finny around here?"

"Right, no one" answered the shy mouse. "It's just... You look so different without your feathered hat on"

"Ah yes, my hat. I lost it some days ago - _My beloved hat - _Anyway, Finny, I really need your help!"

"My help? I... don't know" Finn shifted somewhat uncomfortable. "Everybody is saying you... umm..."

"Me, what?"

"They say, you turned Julien, high priest Julien, into stone!"

"Oh, these horrible lies again!" Lawhinie dramatically whined. "Lies, all of them! That night I was studying in my manor, hundred of miles away!" The witch leaned forward over the table and took Finn's paws on hers. "I'm innocent, Finny! Innocent and wrongly accused! I swear it wasn't me! You... you believe me, right?"

Lawhinie's blue eyes watered, melting Finn's heart and mind. Never before Finn had seen her beloved aristocrat vulnerable like that. Suddenly, he felt the urge to heal whatever was troubling her. Suddenly as well, he realized she was holding his paws.

"Ah!" Finn jumped backwards and tripped over his stool, falling loudly and awkwardly on the floor. "Finn?" The blonde mouse looked over the desk with concern. Although deep inside she was quite amused.

"I'm sorry, I'm very sorry!" Finn apologized over and over while trying to stand up again. "It's my craziness..."

"Are you hurt?"

"No, no..." "All right!" The witch giggled. "Will you help me then?"

"Y-yes, of c-course!" Finn stammered. "Uh... as long as I'm not required to go out of here"

"Oh, I just need information, Finny, nothing beyond your capabilities"

"I see..." Finn reacted to Lawhinie's comment with a mix of relief and self-loathing.

"I'm looking for a black mage" The witch continued nonchalantly. "The most powerful of Paris. Mephisto's orders and all that"

"Uhh well yeah, you know, we don't work for Mephisto anymore"

"What?"

"As my current leader priest Lawrence said, Julien followed Mephisto's orders and ended up as a cold lifeless statue and his soldiers slain. Besides, that demon can't grant wishes anymore, so we are..."

"Acting like the real inquisition again?"

"Yes! I mean, take a look. These are the bounties for the bandits involved in Saint Pierre's incident. These warrants are now posted all over Paris. Captain Lefevre returns tomorrow. He is certain they are hiding here in the city. It's frightening, to say the least"

Lawhinie went through the warrants of Chip Maplewood, Dale Oakmond, Tammy Squirrel... and had to make an extra effort to pretend she didn't know them. Then she stared in disbelief at the last scroll. "Blonde witch, 600 gold nuggets?"

"Umm, is too much?"

While the witch examined her own, not very detailed picture in somber silence, Finn walked to a bookcase and looked through another pile of scrolls. Some minutes later, he returned with an old, torn warrant. "Could this be the wizard you are looking for?"

"Let me see... Enzo Moretti, wizard, 100 gold nuggets. That's not very impressive, Finny. What's his story?"

"I'm not sure. Julien was looking for him some time ago. Then the mage Bethany Lombardi attacked us and all our priorities changed"

"Come on Finny! You must know something else about this Enzo Moretti!"

Finn turned around scratching his head, forcing himself to remember. Lawhinie, meanwhile, crossed his arms and tapped the floor impatiently. Suddenly, both of them heard a loud scream out in the corridor. Without warning, a guard ran into the archive. His face a mask of horror. "Finnegan, get out of here, run away!"

"What? What's going on?" Finn asked to the pale soldier. With the corner of his eye, he spotted Lawhinie hiding in the shadows of a nearby bookcase.

"The dead, Finnegan, the dead!" The guard looked over his shoulder and gasped. "Oh dear god, they are coming for me! dear god!"

The very next second, a priest with torn clothes pounced at him. Both of them fell inside Finnegan's room. "Agghh!" The priest, with violent rage, started to scratch and rip apart the guard's uniform. "Priest Philippe!" The victim tried to grab the long claws. "It's me, It's me!. But Philippe, with blank eyes, didn't stop his attack. On the contrary, he bit the guard's neck with rabid ferocity and didn't let go. Soon, his victim stopped struggling and expired. All in front of a horrified Finnegan.

"Oh god! Philippe, what have you done?" The attacker raised his head and stared directly at the scribe. "Uh..."

The monster jumped over the desk with killing intentions, but was swiftly struck down by a lighting bolt. "Finn! Are you all right!?" Lawhinie asked stepping out of the shadows. This time, his concern about the scribe was more than sincere.

"I'm fine, milady!" Answered Finn, who had tripped over his stool again. As Lawhinie gave his friend a paw to help him stand, they heard a muffled growl. The priest, smoking burnt, raised on his feet again, which caused them both to raise their brows incredulous. Then, nearby and to make things worse, the fallen guard awoke. The guard who was supposed to be dead. He opened his eyes and, upon spotting Lawhinie and Finn, went through a transformation in front of the shocked pair. As he convulsed on the floor, his skin became grey, his fangs and nails grew long and his eyes went blank. What was left of the guard looked more like an envoy from hell, just as the priest who once again got ready to pounce at the witch and the scribe. "Impossible!" The witch hissed. "You two should be dead!" "It's as he said!" Finn squirmed. "The dead are attacking us!"

"Damn it! Finn, cover yourself!" Lawhinie cast a gust of wind that made the dead priest raise violently against the window, throwing him out of the room. The guard saw this as his chance to attack, but was promptly stopped by the witch, who with a twirl of her body crouched and cast a lightning bolt so fierce it turned the corpse to ashes. The violence of the spell left Finn speechless.

"My..."

"Forget about that, come!" Lawhinie grabbed Finn by his paw and ran with him out the archive and down the corridor. The sounds of a fight, of clashing swords, screams of panic and pleads of mercy filled the air around them. It was real, bizarre but real. The dead were attacking them. At the end of the long corridor, Lawhinie and Finn passed over a pair of inquisitors laying dead on the ground. The door to the gardens was there in front of them, wide-open. The witch sighed with relief as she stepped out the building and saw everything was clear. No one was around. No one.

Suddenly, she realized..."Finn?". Baffled, she turned around and saw the scribe at the frame of the door, trying, struggling, to take a step out. "I-I can't do it"

"Damn it Finn, this not the time!"

The shy mouse again tried to lean forward and out the building. An again, something deep inside just didn't let him. "I... I'm sorry" He apologized with broken voice.

"Finn, Come on! Please!" The witch sincerely begged.

"I- I..." The mouse decided to close his eyes. Took a deep breath, made a leap of faith and... finally stepped outside. Then, as he glanced again at the witch and smiled triumphant, was tackled from behind by the corpses of the two inquisitors from before.

"No!" Lawhinie yelled. She ran back to him, but it was too late. One of the monsters sank his fangs brutally into his neck.

"Mi... lady" The scribe tried to crawl away. Suddenly, with his blurry sight, managed to see Lawhinie reaching and grabbing his extended arm. Then his fingers felt heavy, like stone. The grip lasted just an instant, as Lawhinie bolted upright immediately to face the monsters who had killed him. Meanwhile, the spell moved fast through Finn's body, like a cold poison turning his body and even clothes into stone. Soon he wasn't able to feel anything anymore. And the last thing the shy mouse saw as his face got paralized was Lawhinie glancing at him with the corner of her blazing blue eye and whispering an "I'm sorry". Finnegan Joyce ended up as a cold lifeless statue frozen with a mixed expression of pain and disbelief. The witch, upon watching the result of her spell, burnt the two monsters to ashes with shrieking, intense fury. Her display didn't go unnoticed, though, as an army of corpses ran to her out of the building and from the garden's bushes. Soon, she was totally surrounded by immortal enemies. "I dare you, fools!" The witch, her dress and hair now a total mess, taunted them. "You'll die again by my hands! Don't you know who am I?"

"You are Lawhinie Hackwrench, aren't you?" Shocked, the witch looked up. There, on a flying carpet, was a mummified mouse. A mummified mouse sitting leg-crossed, his chin in his cupped paw. He seemed quite amused with the show below him.

"Who... are you?" Lawhinie asked in awe.

"My name is Enzo Moretti" the mouse replied, sitting up straight. "The necromancer!"


	4. Chapter 4 - The army of dead

**Chapter 4 - The army of dead**

The witch blinked twice. "A necromancer?" But she was soon reminded of her current situation when a pair of undead guards tried to strike her down. She barely had time to jump aside.

"Hold!" The mouse wrapped in linen bandages ordered. At once, the whole group of corpses obediently laid down their weapons and stood still, glancing at the blonde witch with bloodshot eyes.

Enzo Moretti then stood proud on his flying carpet, which Lawhinie realized it was held on the air by mist. "Tell me" The mouse ordered. "Which side are you nowadays, Lady Hackwrench?"

Lawhinie took a moment to seriously consider her answer.

She, the witch of Cologne, was surrounded by none other than 'zombies'. The sole word made her skip a beat. Zombies were walking dead people animated by necromancy, the foulest form of black magic. African texts Lawhinie once read about zombies couldn't tell if the corpse was repossessed by its owner's soul or by lesser demons from hell. What every scholar agreed on was the fact that a person bitten by a zombie would die and rise again as another zombie. The witch took a quick glance at Finn Joyce, turned into stone by her hand the very moment after one of these abominations bit him. A feeling of dread overcame her.

_"was I able to save you, Finn? All right Lawhinie, focus! You are in front of a black wizard in charge of an army of raging zombies, so his power must come from Mephisto, right? But then again, why is he slaughtering our master's lackeys? Maybe... maybe he got word of their 'resignation'? If that's the case..."_

"Well, I'm on Mephisto's side, of course!" The witch declared as convincingly as she could, a fake smile added. "As we are all of us witches and wizards, right? _Right?_"

"Ha! Such a liar!" the wizard retorted. "In fact, you just said two lies in one sentence"

"Huh?"

"I know about your latest exploits, Lawhinie Hackwrench. You are the one who attacked Julien Montblanc and his company on the outskirts of Saint Pierre"

"How in blazes do you know that!? Er, I mean..."

Enzo just shrugged. "The same way I know your name, my lady. It happens the dead talk to me. And a dozen soldiers burnt to death on that grass field have a lot to say. These wretched souls haven't stopped cursing the name of their murderer over and over the past few days"

The witch became pale. She needed a way out, and fast. "I-I just... heard that Julien Montblanc was betraying us so I was ordered to punish him accordingly. I assume you are doing the same here, huh?"

"What do you mean, young one?" Enzo grinned dangerously under the wraps of his mouth. "If you imply I'm here by Mephisto's orders, you are terribly wrong"

Upon Lawhinie's puzzled expression, the necromancer shook his head. "I told you about your second lie. You are not in Mephisto's side anymore, but neither am I"

"Are you not? And Mephisto knows it?"

"Oh, I'm beyond that demon cat's silly game. And it seems to me, you also want out"

Lawhinie frowned. Indeed, that wizard knew too much about her. It was unsettling, to say the least.

On that moment, a rally cry broke the witch's musings. She turned around, only to find a column of rodent soldiers on the distance, running towards her and the undead swords in hands.

Enzo Moretti leaned forward. "Ah, the garrison wants to fight back, eh? I guess this break gave them enough time to reorganize their ranks. Anyway, young girl, come up here" The necromancer invited her. "Things are gonna get messy"

"Hey, I'm not a child! I can take care of myself down here!" Lawhinie replied offended, and on that moment a rain of arrows fell on her back. Her guarding spell withstood the impacts, barely. "On second thought..."

Upon the witch's command, her broom hovered to her from a nearby bush. Soon, she rose in the air and next to Enzo. It was only then that she noticed the stench coming from the mouse. Not only a smell of garbage and sewers, but also rotting flesh. This rat smelled to death. The witch suppressed the urge to cover her nose in disgust. "Wow! What's the deal with that stench? Also, your bandages... Are you leprous? Because you must tell me if you are!"

Enzo just laughed. "Leprous? Me? Not at all" he assured.

Just to be sure, Lawhinie moved aside slightly. Below them, a battle raged with extreme violence.

The inquisition greeted the undead with a charging line of pikemen. Surprisingly, their targets didn't move or answered. They didn't even scream, just got impaled on the spot like... a bunch of standing corpses.

"Oh, my bad!" Enzo scowled. "I tend to forget, must give them new orders"

The voice of the necromancer thundered over the battlefield, leaving aghast the inquisitors who dare to turn their eyes up to the sky. "The time has come, my slaves. Kill the inquisitors! Kill everyone one of them!"

Any confidence gained by stabbing standing targets was soon lost when the zombies awoke and began to fight back. Fight the inquisitors back with dirty claws, rotten fangs and ravenous fury. The soldiers suddenly found themselves in the middle of a nightmare. The zombies, even impaled by spears, even with arms and legs cut off by swords, kept pressing forward. Blood-thirsty and rage-blinded. One by one, the inquisition guards fell under the zombie's wrath, only to magically stand up again moments later as fresh zombies and turning their blades against their perplexed comrades. That gruesome cycle repeated over and over, and the undead army soon overwhelmed the terrified inquisitors.

Lawhinie witnessed the whole massacre, unsure of how to feel about it. The way the inquisitors were being literally eaten alive was kind of gross, and yet, she couldn't help but feel a rush of excitement inside of her. This was indeed necromancy, the forbidden magic of the dead. The witch found herself smiling wolfishly, picturing Chip Maplewood and his companions falling victims of a horde of murderous zombies. Yes, it was a very appealing scene.

"What's on your mind, milady?" Enzo asked, watching Lawhinie enjoying his show.

"Dreams of revenge"

"I see... well, good luck with that"

The blunt response took Lawhinie by surprise. "What? Wait! I've been looking for you all night long! You are that mage Mephisto told me about! He said you would help and join me. Listen, a group of heroes..."

"Hold on!" The necromancer raised his paw. "Mephisto told you to look for me? For help? Ridiculous! I'm not in his book anymore, so whatever he promised you is irrelevant to me. Besides, I couldn't care less about the petty quarrels of his slaves. And by slaves, I mean you, Lawhinie Hackwrench"

"No!" The witch shook her head furiously. "No, no no! You don't understand! I need your help, I need your army! These damned heroes think themselves so good and righteous, wielding divine magic against me... I want them dead! Come on, help me kill them!"

"Not interested"

"One of them is the daughter of Bethany Lombardi!"

"So what? In any case, it would be fun to watch how much she can achieve"

"Ok, I understand! What's your price then?"

"What? do I look like a mercenary? I don't need anything from you, milady"

"Arrghh!" The witch made a full turn on her broom, desperate. She almost couldn't believe what was about to say next. "Ok, I got it, don't join me then! But, at least, teach me! Teach me how to raise my own army of zombies! I want to be a necromancer!" Lawhinie's fiery blue eyes lidded at the wizard.

A image, however, crossed the girl's mind. Her family – father, sister and servant - lowering their heads in shame. A vision that was soon cast aside by her need for revenge and power. If Lawhinie's mad stare broke for even a second, Enzo never noticed.

The necromancer crossed his arms and fell silent, appraising the witch's up and down. Lawhinie kept her eyes fixated on him, waiting for an answer.

"I wonder..." Enzo spoke all of a sudden. "Why haven't you freaked out at the sight of me, my undead minions or the company of ghosts that sustain my carpet?"

"Company of ghosts?" Lawhinie glanced down at the carpet. On close sight, amid the mist, one could make the forms of limbs, paws, even heads. Heads of male and female rodents appearing and disappearing as they melt in the mist again. Their expressions a mix of pain and resignation. Quite disturbing, but Lawhinie managed to keep her cool, unattached attitude. "Tsk! I've seen ghosts and paranormal stuff since I was a little girl. Believe me, that mist is nothing compared to what I used to watch every sunday of my childhood at the local cemetery"

"Is that so?" Enzo tilted his head. "All right, lady Hackwrench. I admit you have good credentials. I guess I can teach you one trick or two from my repertoire"

"Excellent! You'll find out I'm a very talented student"

"Let's talk in my lair. I'm done here, anyway" With these words, Enzo sat down again on his carpet and turned around.

"Done?" That was the moment the witch realized the silence around them. Gone were the noises of the battle, clash of swords, screams of horror and pleads for mercy. She looked down, perplexed. Below, there wasn't any living being anymore. And yet, a whole army was looking up back at the witches, eager for new commands.


	5. Chapter 5 - The necromancer's lair

Lawhinie followed Enzo Moretti across the night sky of Paris. She, mounting her broom. He, sitting cross-legged on his flying carpet, sustained in the air by a cloud of spirits. Lawhinie couldn't help but think about a picture she once saw in a book: a pharaoh sitting comfortably on his throne, carried by slaves on his way to inspect a new pyramid or palace or something similar. Of course, the text of that book made no mention of the laments of pain and exhaustion coming from the slaves chained below their master. Laments she was hearing too clear on that moment.

Necromancy was the art of use and discard ghosts, dead people, at will. In other words, ghost slavery. Sure, some slaves would come in handy once she became the queen of the world, but still... didn't people deserve to rest in peace after death?

Lawhinie wasn't sure what to make of it.

Years ago, following the death of her parents, the girl found herself standing at their tomb, waiting for their spirits to rise from beyond the grave the same way she had seen others do over and over. But strange enough, they never awoke again.

Three days and nights Lawhinie waited for them. Apparently all by herself. Her twin sister Gadget had locked herself in the library to deal with her own sorrow; Sabrina wasn't able to leave the manor's grounds, no matter how much she wanted to. To make things worse, the young girl had gained notoriety as a brazen spoiled brat, so she got no sympathy from fellow mourners and visitors. However, you are never really alone in a graveyard. Day and night, dozens of deceased neighbors paraded before Lawhinie's blue eyes. Most of them good people, who due to a myriad of reasons were still stuck in this physical world. Among them, were Mr. and Mrs. Fischer: a couple of elderly ghost mice who not long ago had been owners of a store the Hackwrench family used to visit. It was thanks to their company and caring words that Lawhinie got over her grief, found the strength to go back home and later installed herself as head of her family.

_"I wonder if Mr. and Mrs. Fischer are still wandering around Melaten cemetery..."_ An unquiet Lawhinie thought to herself. Suddenly, more whines and pleads for mercy from the mist ahead shook her out to reality.

Troubled, she decided to forget about these mixed feelings and just look the other way. Yes, she just focused on something completely unrelated, like that lonely merchant ship navigating through the river Seine, blurring the reflection of the moon in the water. Once the ship passed by, the image of the moon got formed again, as bright and divine as its twin in the sky. The scene was so captivating that soon she stopped noticing or caring about the working conditions of Enzo's spirits.

Once they left the river behind, Enzo descended all the way down to street level. Lawhinie followed him across the cold, barely lit alleys which were almost empty at that hour. Almost. From time to time, the necromancer changed his course abruptly to avoid being spotted by human night watchers. Enzo's cautious behavior amused Lawhinie at first. However, as she passed by a pair of human beggars - kids covered in dirt and leaning asleep behind a crate - her mind couldn't help but drift towards Timothy Traugott and his family. And Finnegan, for that matter. More feelings to add to the pot. Gnashing her teeth, she forced herself to focus on the necromancer and her own agenda of revenge.

Lawhinie was shaking her head in denial when she noticed that Enzo had stopped in front of a building: a two-floor store. Catching up, the witch then stopped and frowned at what she saw behind the marquee: dolls.

Tens of porcelain dolls with white bright faces, red blushed cheeks and crystal colored eyes were sitting there in silence, greeting with vacant expressions and extended pleading arms at anyone who stood at the other side of the window. Their dresses were exquisite as well, some even more luxurious than Lawhinie's. Made of multicolored silk and cotton, trimmed with golden threads and adorned with flower-like patterns. Some of them even had accessories like hats, umbrellas and pendants. Undoubtedly, these were toys for rich, high class girls. The mouse hovered in front of the showcase filled with both amazement and jealousy.

Strange enough, among all the dolls in display, one of them wasn't smiling. It was sneering.

Out of curiosity, Lawhinie flew and took a closer look at that one doll. Suddenly, on the moment she touched the window, the whole lot of dolls in display turned their heads and stared at the witch in unison.

"Oh god!" Lawhinie yelled in fear. Her heart skipped a beat as she saw the dolls opening their porcelain mouths trying to scream. The dolls were alive!.

Enzo, who was watching from the side, just clapped his paws amused. "Bravo, bravo my dear dolls! You have become frightening enough to scare the hell out of Mephisto's best witch!"

"I... I... am not scared!" Lawhinie retorted back, her fur standing on edge.

With a dismissing gesture of his paw, the mouse in linen bandages ordered the dolls to rest back on the display. At once, the lot closed their mouths and returned to their positions, glancing at nothing with twisted smiles. Another command, and the knob of the front door turned by itself. The door opened silently and the necromancer invited her guest to come inside.

It was too dark in there. As she flew through the front store, Lawhinie barely made out the silhouettes of dolls sitting on chairs, stools and showcases. Somehow, she could tell they were following her with those fake glass eyes. And the sound of the closing door didn't help to ease the chills of dread and impending treason the witch was feeling at that moment.

"What did I get myself into..." she whispered to herself, and ignited her paw on fire. Soon the flame turned itself into a floating orb that followed her above the head and lit the room around. Just as she imagined, she was surrounded by dolls, many of them possessed, all of them glancing back at her with vacant expressions. Lawhinie swallowed hard, turned towards Enzo, and got ready for an ambush. Enzo was not, after all, in Mephisto's book anymore.

But the mouse in wraps didn't do anything of the sort. He just took a look at the witch over his shoulder, frowned, and went back to guide his flying carpet across the room and towards another opened door, which led them to the workshop at the back of the building.

There, after landing over a wooden table, and amidst heads, torsos and limbs of unfinished dolls, Lawhinie Hackwrench had her first lesson on necromancy.

"So... you live here?" Lawhinie asked, glancing all around the room. It smelled of many things. Humans, for example, whose stench could be traced back upstairs.

"For the time being, yes" Enzo answered, after being interrupted by a loud snore from the upper floor. "At least until I finish my project, then I'll move out somewhere else". The witch spotted a nearby candle and motioned her fire orb towards it. The room lit and Lawhinie finally got a good look at her host. Immediately, she got the urge to twist her mouth in disgust, but refrained. Enzo was wrapped in old, dirty bandages, with some bangs of white hair sticking out here and there, giving him the appearance of a decrepit old mouse.

"Project? What project?" Lawhinie asked again, forcing herself to keep her gaze on the mummified mouse.

"My project of possessing dolls, of course" The wizard turned towards the eyeless porcelain heads laying next to him. "Not long ago, I decided to become a philanthropist and help the many wandering spirits of Paris find a new place to live. What better way than inside pampered dolls living in wealthy palaces and manors. All I ask in compensation for my effort..." He turned back to Lawhinie with narrowed, malicious eyes. "Is to hear Paris nobility scream in terror at night. Oh, how I long for that!"

"Wow! That's... quite evil. I like it!"

"Sadly, your friends at the inquisition decided to get their noses in. By mere chance, they found one my first possessed doll and decided to burn it. Humpf! What a bunch of rotten hypocrites! They just couldn't let me have fun, could they? Well, that's why you find me there at their headquarters tonight, simply ending what that squirrel mage started some months ago"

"Yeah, about what you did there... I mean, to command these zombies... So that's all what necromancy is about?"

The moment Lawhinie said that word, Enzo's eyes shined. "Ha! Necromancy is that and more, much more, my dear. Such a powerful school, if one's got the stomach to master it"

"I had never seen a walking zombie before. Are there any other necromancers like you around here?"

Enzo shrugged. "Not really. I'm the last remaining necromancer in the whole France. Bethany's band killed everyone one of them except me. Perhaps I was left alone because I haven't been in Mephisto's payroll since decades ago. Or perhaps they realized that I was way out of their league" Enzo finished his bragging thrusting his chest out, and Lawhinie could swear there was a prideful grin behind these bandages on his mouth.

"Uh well" The witch flipped her hair and looked aside, dubious. "Now that you mention it... Did you also say earlier that you weren't on Mephisto's side anymore? How is that even possible?" She then fixed her eyes on his host. "We are both black wizards, bound to him for life"

"Hahaha, exactly! That's the keyword here... 'for life'"

The necromancer reached for the linen wraps that covered his head and pulled them off so Lawhinie could take a look at his real face. No, it wasn't a face. It was a skull with decaying patches of flesh and hair, the eyeballs still attached somehow and glancing back at her. Lawhinie got pale and speechless. She stepped back. She wasn't talking to a mouse, she was talking to a corpse.

"Im-impossible! Are you dead? A zombie? No... What the hell are you?"

The skull opened his jaw and somehow, talked. "I'm called a lich, girl. An undead mage. Such is the loophole, or rather, my solution, to the devil's contract. Oh, you should have seen the face of that demon, on the day I died but my soul wasn't anywhere to be found"

"What!? How?" The witch raised her eyebrows, completely lost.

"To put it bluntly, I teared it off from my body and hid it somewhere safer"

Lawhinie looked at him puzzled. Enzo saw then the chance to brag a little about his craft. "Long ago, I learned how to attach your own soul to any chosen solid object through a special necromantic ritual. Of course, you perish in the last step of the incantation. However! if you are powerful enough and well versed in the ways of necromancy, then you can raise again on your feet... victorious over death and over that merchant from hell!"

"But, what about that smelling, rotting body?" Lawhinie deliberately covered her nose. "You died and became a walking corpse! How much time is left until you fall apart?"

"Fall apart?" The lich snorted dismissively. "You, unbeliever! Behold this!"

Enzo raised his paws up, commanding his spirit servants to shroud him in a strong flurry of ghostly mist. The wind was quick to obey his request, and Lawhinie was forced to grab the folding of her skirt to avoid any embarrassment. Some long seconds later, once the wind subdued and the mist scattered down the planks of the table, in front of Lawhinie stood a middle-aged, handsome mouse with honey eyes and silky black hair down to his shoulders, wearing fancy regal clothes.

"I... can't believe it" muttered Lawhinie, sucking in a quick breath.

Enzo, with a wide charming smile, took a step closer to her. "Black magic is such a useful tool, huh? Even better when you can use it without a pesky conscience reminding you every day about the price you paid for it. Then, without any burden or regrets, you are able to get past your own, fleshy limits. You see, I 'died' half a century ago, and since that day, waves of black magic have sustained me, fed me, strengthen me... I'm so powerful now that, If I wanted to, I could take over Paris and its denizens"

"Then why? Why haven't you done it already?" The witch demanded to know.

"Bah! Not interested... ruling over millions of dirty, ignorant humans is a waste of time and potential" Upon the witch's sudden loss of words, Enzo grinned. "Oh, I get it now! you are one of these persons who want to be king of the world, don't you? To become the ruler of everyone and everything? Was that the wish you traded your soul for?"

"So what if I did?" retorted back the witch narrowing her eyes.

"Well, in all my years, I've met many others who wanted the same"

"Huh?"

"'King of the world'. What, you thought you were the first one to ask for that? Sure, Mephisto is bounded by contract to help you make your wish true. However, sooner of later, you'll cross your path with the annoying forces that keep balance in this world"

Lawhinie kept silence, drifting to that other night.

"It already happened to you, right? As you said before... 'Heroes wielding divine magic'. That's why that demon sent you to look for me." The necromancer rubbed his chin thoughtfully for a moment. "Well, we can't say that cat doesn't honor his part of the agreement, can we?"

"Then, will you help me?" asked the witch, perking her ears up.

"Sure, why not?" The necromancer shrugged with apathy.

"So... when will we start?"

"Come find me here tomorrow night, after the humans have closed the store and blew all candles out, then we'll start your training in the mighty art of necromancy"

With each word, Enzo's figure blurred more and more, until his gallant figure was no more. Instead, in front of Lawhinie appeared again a decaying walking corpse in loosed wraps. The necromancer curled his jaw to show a mock of a smile. The witch, in return, forced a straight face to hide her distaste. Deep inside her, the voice of reason cried out. _"What did I get myself into?" _


	6. Chapter 6 - The border of life and death

**Chapter 6 - The border of life and death**

According to lore, in a night of full moon one could spot, while glancing at the sky, witches flying on their broomsticks in their way to their secret meetings. Tales of unwilling witnesses, usually men who discover in shock that their lovely wives are actually witches in disguise, were very common in all of europe, from Spain to Russia.

At the end of the XVII century, over the city of Paris, a female mouse with blonde hair and shadows on her blue eyes found herself flying on her broomstick and enjoying the night's fresh breeze.

Lawhinie, apprentice of necromancy, took a deep breath and hold it with pleasure. The cold air helped ease her troubled, unquiet mind. For tonight, she was on her way to 'Les innocents'.

Built next to an important market, Les innocents was the final place for thousands of parisinians. The oldest an largest cemetery of Paris. An overcrowded labyrinth of tombs and crypts; of ossuaries replete with bones and skulls up to their ceilings; of mass, unmarked graves; of tales about covens of vampires dwelling in its underground catacombs. It was said that some of its pits held up hundreds of bodies at the same time. In the whole of europe, maybe in the whole world, there wasn't a place as macabre as Les innocents.

Letting the air go out, the witch looked at the companion right ahead of her. Enzo Moretty, the necromancer, who was flying comfortably sit cross-legged on his old persian carpet. His trick: a group of slave ghosts who were carrying him like a pharaoh, or maybe like a maharaja from the tales of Simbad?

Lawhinie grinned at her witty comparison. "_Sinbad? Where did I... ah yes_" A memory of her father, who used to read about the adventures of the arabian sailor to her at bedtime. Sabrina, unnoticed by everyone but Lawhinie, would sit on the bed to listen the story just as another child of Geegaw would do. Good, long gone times.

She then reflected about the path she had taken these past days. About her newest spell: "Detect corpses". Its effect was, well, to detect buried corpses nearby. Learning it was her first step in the school of necromancy. Now she wasn't only able to see ghosts, but to feel when she was walking on top of potential zombies, or as Enzo used to call them, minions.

"Minions..." Lawhinie muttered the word slowly. Dead people were now minions, tools laying in the ground ready to be used and discarded at will. Such was the creed of the necromancer. Sooner or later every single person in the world would become a tool for her. Tonight, she was going to learn how to pick up these tools. But what about Sabrina, the Fischers, her parents resting in their graves?

"Argh! It's all your fault!" The witch gritted her teeth at the image of Chip Maplewood. "Look at what are you forcing me to do!"

Bells around the city had just chimed the tenth hour of the night when the wizards arrived at their destination. What Lawhinie saw the moment her feet touched land was incredible. Her gifted eyes took immediate notice of the thousands of ghosts – humans, rodents, dogs and cats - that roamed through the alleys of the cemetery. It was an entire city of ethereal beings right in the center of Paris, much more crowded than any other place she had seen before. Curious enough, the strange nature law that didn't allowed humans to perceive their rodent neighbors's customs was still on course. These tall beings weren't aware at all they had small companions sharing their same condition: rejection from heaven.

Talking about heaven, it was up there, in the night sky. That luminous nebula next to Polaris with the pearlescent glowing center. Only ghosts and people like Lawhinie were able to spot and contemplate it. So glorious, any spirit would mutter in awe; so far away, Lawhinie would always answer back acidly. To her, it seemed like a bad joke, a reminder of the unreachable, of the reward she and every other stranded spirit had lost forever.

And she knew of many who had spend years staring idle at heaven.

Both mages walked among the denizens of the place. All of them bowed with fear as the old necromancer mouse passed by. And Lawhinie could hear the spirits murmuring about her. Finally, the duo arrived at the top of a mound of dirt that overlooked an open tomb.

As the dead gathered around them, the mouse in linen wraps turned to the female mouse. "When a person dies" He declared. "His soul leaves this world and goes to the judgment place. The body, meanwhile, remains here to rot and became dust. A zombie is nothing more than an empty vessel made of rotting flesh. It awakes to us only with the basic, primal instincts of hunger and anger. And that's why you must make them yield as soon as they rise from the grave. You don't want to end up as their breakfast, do you?"

He then described a circle around with his arm. "How many slumbering corpses do you feel nearby?"

Lawhinie took a quick breath, lowered her head and muttered magical words. Once done, she blinked with sparkles on her eyes. The burial mounds around, old and new, glittered for her in red.

"There are... too many" The witch answered.

"Let's raise that one" Enzo pointed his decaying finger to a mound right in front of Lawhinie. "It's in good shape, overall. Here, read this scroll loud, memorize the words"

Frowning, Lawhinie took the scroll, gave it a quick read, and got ready to summon her first zombie. The girl raised her arms and recited the following words with grand resolution: "Arise, arise! I give you life and bind you to me!".

On the act, the soil began to move aside. A half-decomposed mouse in old ragged clothes made its way out of the mound, twisting and convulsing weirdly. Slowly, as if the limbs were to crumble apart, stood up. The zombie then took glances all around with its sullen eyes, sniffed the air with the remains of his nose and... started to munch his own arm.

"What the...? Is he supposed to do that?" Lawhinie asked her mentor.

Enzo just sighed. "The fact that he is trying to eat himself its a sign you didn't concentrate enough on the spell. Come on, it is yours now, force him to obey you!"

Lawhinie took a step forward and raised her arm in the direction of her summon. "You! Stop that now! I command you!"

The zombie didn't even noticed her.

"Hey, listen to me! Stop eating yourself!"

The only answer were muffled giggles and smirks from the ghosts gathered around.

"Listen to me, goddamit!" The witch lost her patience and casted a fierce lighting bolt at the hungry zombie, making him explode in tiny bits.

Enzo put his paws on his hips, annoyed. "This is gonna take a while"

Two hours later...

"Turn left, turn left! Just do it, you idiot!"

A vexed Lawhinie stomped her foot on the ground. Her latest summoned zombie simply didn't want to cooperate. The witch then turned around in a tantrum, throwing her arms up on the air, kicking the air and groaning theatrically. Finally, she scrubbed a paw over her hair and stood still, trying to regain calm.

A cackle betrayed the zombie as he tried to walk away from its summoner.

"Oh no you don't!" The witch turned around and cast a fireball that made quick work of the renegade corpse with a sounding explosion. "And of course, you had to try and escape on the right..."

She looked around. Enzo Moretti was there, sit on a nearby rock. He had given up a while ago and now was just enjoying the scene. Lawhinie could almost see the grin under the wraps that covered his rotten mouth. Annoyed, she looked away, at the crowd of rodents who had gathered around the wizards. Some elderly mice gossiping and pointing at her fancy, eastern europe-style dress; a trio of musketeers at her back, flirting and rooting for her; a group of kids applauding the show... All of them long dead.

Enzo rubbed his chin and stood up as soon as the smoke of the explosion cleared out enough. "Another spirit knocked down by your bad temper. You are supposed to control them, not disintegrate them"

"I know, I know... It's just that I can't stand when people doesn't do as I say"

"They don't do as you say because your commands are weak!" Enzo scolded her. "Your commands are weak because your mind isn't focused enough... and your mind isn't focused because you lack motivation"

The necromancer recited the spell, made some quick circles with his paw and summoned his own zombie from a nearby mound. The dead rodent, which wore a leather armor and carried a rusty longsword, hurried up to its summoner's side. "Well, I have a method to make apprentices focus on their spells... Hey, minion!" Submissive as a pet, the zombie looked up at its master, eager for orders. Enzo gave him only one. "Do me a favor and kill this witch!"

"Wait, what?" Exclaimed Lawhinie, taken aback as the dead warrior adopted a fighting stance. "How dare you!" Outraged, she defended herself with a lightning bolt. This time, however, a magic barrier prevented any damage. In return, the warrior rushed at the witch with a vertical cut. Lawhinie barely dodged it jumping aside, with the gathered crowd applauding in excitement.

"I won't let you damage my minion" Enzo explained to his startled student. "And by that I mean, you must summon a warrior of your own to fight mine. And this time, you better concentrate!"

"Ugh!" Lawhinie gritted her teeth, avoiding slash after slash of that old sword. "I'll show you! I... just need... one... moment!"

And Lawhinie gained that moment by calling her broom to help. She jumped on it as the zombie missed yet another cut by a pair of millimeters. The witch climbed up in the air and looked around. Yes, there was another ancient warrior buried nearby. She recited the summon spell as fast as she could. In front of Enzo's minion, another rodent corpse rose from the ground, sword in paw.

"Now, you! Go and fight for me!" The witch ordered. The summoned corpse listened and... engaged Lawhinie's enemy without any second thoughts. "Ha! Success!" She proclaimed clenching her fist. "Look, he obeys me like a loyal slave! Many could learn from him!"

Enzo just shrugged amused. "Well, he didn't run away. I'll grant you that".

As both warriors clashed their swords, the hovering witch noticed another burial site right on the spot where some wandering spirits were observing the fight. A mischievous grin adorned her face. "Look at what I found here!"

With another quick incantation Lawhinie awoke the corpse from his tomb. This one was unarmed, though, and kind of fat, but that didn't refrain the blonde mouse from using him. "Now minion, go there and join the fight!"

After a moment of uncomfortable silence, Lawhinie's newest pawn nodded. The fat corpse walked fast yet awkwardly to where the warriors where exchanging blows. Enzo's fighter had no choice but to step back and adopt a defense stance, as he was assaulted now by both sides.

"So!" Enzo shouted from his high spot. "What is this? Running before learning to walk?"

"Oh yes! And I'll show you what Mephisto's best witch is capable of. Just wait and...*sniff* Eww!"

Lawhinie couldn't end her sentence, due to a sudden vomiting spasm. Her nose had just caught the fetid stench of the corpses fighting below her, but this time, their odor was like nothing she had experienced before. She barely had time to cover her mouth with her paws before she were to puke her dinner out.

Enzo rubbed his temples, more exasperated than ever. "What's now, Lawhinie?"

Utterly nauseated, her face green, Lawhinie plummeted to the ground without control. Right to where the stench was thicker. she couldn't held herself any more and vomited. "Cough! Cough!" She promptly wiped her mouth. "I can't... why are they... so suddenly stinky?"

"What the hell do you mean!?"

And just in that moment, Enzo's warrior cut in vertical Lawhinie's summon number 2. The left half of the fat zombie corpse fell next to the witch, releasing a cloud of foul-smelling decomposing vapors. Too much for Lawhinie's upper-class smelling senses. The revulsion made her threw off again.

"Oh, that..." Enzo acknowledged. "Yes, you just happened to summon a half-decomposed corpse. Stinky bombs, they are. Sorry I didn't warn you before, but I lost my smelling sense decades ago, you see? I tend to forget about such details"

"Why, you!" Lawhinie tried to stand up and face him, but the nausea made her fall on her knees again. "You..."

To make things worse, Enzo's warrior gave a final strike to Lawhinie's summon number 1. The loser crumbled apart and the winner made an awkward dance of victory. The duel between master and apprentice had come to an end, which caused Lawhinie to bury her face in her paws, defeated and humilliated.

Enzo cocked his head at the witch. "I'm starting to think you don't have the stomach to be a necromancer..."

"That's... not..." Lawhinie started to answer still hiding her face, fighting her conflicting emotions: disgust, defeat, shame. Even more, for the first time ever she dared to admit the feeling she got the night she saw Enzo's army in action. Necromancy... was gross.

Upon the witch's silence, Enzo turned his back on her. "Oh, don't feel bad" He said walking to his flying carpet. "Not everyone has the guts to become a necromancer. We are a special kind of wizard. A superior type of wizard, I'd say, and you..."

"Look out!" A ghost from the crowd suddenly shouted. And the rest of them gasped in shock. Both wizards turned to them perplexed.

Lawhinie, while trying to understand why all the ghosts were staring at her in silence, noticed a growing, biting pain in her chest. That and a metallic taste in her throat. She looked down and... found the blade of a rusty sword coming out of her body.

"Ah... ah..." The witch tried to scream, unsuccessfully. She was chocking with blood, and only managed was to cough some blobs out. Still in denial, she slowly reached for the blade, only to witness it retreat back inside, pulled from behind by her attacker: Enzo's summoned warrior.

"Oh yes, I did told him to kill you, didn't I?" Enzo admitted snorting.

"Ughh..." Lawhinie fell limp on one shoulder and then on her back. In shock, spewing blood, she looked at the zombie raising his sword again and aiming for her neck. The witch tried to crawl away, but the paws slipped on the pool of blood and fell again on her back with a loud groan, the burst of pain overwhelming her.

On the last moment, Enzo unsummoned his zombie with a weave of his paw. The warrior crumbled in pieces, the sword falling close to the witch's head. The necromancer then flew down the rock and stood next to his apprentice. "What an unfortunate accident, right?" He said flatly. "Well, they are more common than you think. Now, if only you had stayed focused and continued on the duel"

"help... me..." The witch pitifully implored.

The necromancer, in return, crossed his arms. "Sorry milady, I'm no healer. Actually, I'm getting more and more curious... would I be able to summon you after you die? And just what kind of zombie would you become?"

"Cough! W..what?"

"I mean, I've never summoned a dead witch... I wonder if it that is even possible. Anyway, that will be an interesting experiment! I just need to wait until your soul is dragged back to Mephisto's side"

"P-please..."

"Afraid of the devil, huh? Sure, I could help you hide your soul as I did with mine, but we have no time left to perform the ritual. Besides, you would need a silver object as container, and the only one I brought with me..." Enzo touched a silver ring on his left paw. "Is already occupied, hehehe!".

Lawhinie let out a muffled cry of desperation and shutted her eyes. She was cold, dizzy, losing conscience. Second by second, she stopped feeling her body anymore. Cold and dizziness took over her. "This is... a mistake" She whispered as tears ran down her still pretty face. "I don't want to die... please, don't let me die"

A muffled gasp, then she stopped breathing.

"tee-hee!" A gleeful, innocent giggle suddenly reverberated in her mind. "An easy-to-open healing potion, which I hope you won't ever need!"

Lawhinie's eyes opened wide so abruptly, and her back arched so violently, that Enzo took a step back swearing, convinced that the witch's body had been possessed by some demon. Lawhinie took a loud, irregular breath and fell again on her side, looking desperately for her broom. She extended one arm and, with a last thread of magical force, commanded the wooden object to come to her.

The stick obeyed, and swiftly hovered to its master's paw. Half-unconscious and pale, the witch managed to reach the backpack and grab a vial filled with a red liquid. Its cork popped out easily, as it was meant to, and its contents were drank avidly. Once done, the witch fell still once again.

With Enzo and the local ghosts as witnesses, Lawhinie's body sparkled. Each passing second, the nasty wounds in her chest and back healed leaving only a scar. Soon the witch, although unconscious and laying in a pool of her own blood, was breathing again normally. Enzo's disappointment was clear. "Damn..." He complained, not without sarcasm. "I really wanted to add a witch zombie to my collection"

Lawhinie didn't hear these terrible words. She was in the middle of a pleasant dream. She was again a little girl, laying cozily in her bed. Sabrina was there, holding her paw. Her father was smiling, reading bedtime stories to them. And everything was right in her world.


	7. Chapter 7 - The golden cross

**Chapter 7 – The golden cross**

Lawhinie touched again the big scar on her chest and bit her lower lip. Pain and regret flickered over her red stained face. Not only her face, but her dress - her beautiful dress- was stained with dried blood. The corset ripped apart. Her hair a mess. She had never felt so ugly in her whole life.

So ugly, so... worthless.

She crouched and wrapped her arms around herself, drawing shallow breaths in. She had never been so close to die before, not even when these heroes defeated her and tried to execute her with an arrow. "No, this was worse..." she lamented in a whisper. "I died, I died and then saw..."

Her body began to tremble with involuntary shakes. She couldn't contain anymore and began to sob. Deep inside her, under her now shattered mask of evilness and confidence, her biggest fear throbbed: Hell.

She looked, from the high place she was currently hiding, at the ghosts that walked in Les Innocents on that clear night. She would never be like them: after death she would not linger in Earth in an ethereal form. Instead, she would go straight to hell for making pacts with the devil and for the people she betrayed and killed while trying to break that pact. That was her fate, and right now, she was too broken to keep fighting against it. Two mortal defeats in two weeks were proof of something greater working against her. The powers that keep balance in the world truly wanted her dead.

With trembling voice, amid tears and shaking paws, she talked to the night sky. "Sabrina, father... I can't go on anymore. I just don't want to die"

On that moment, the downhearted witch felt a chill down her spine. A sensation she knew too well and that usually meant...

A ghost was standing next to her. A ghost hamster, to be precise.

"bonne nuit, mademoiselle..." The hamster greeted her with a bow, somewhat nervous.

"Go away, ghost" Lawhinie said coldly. "I'm not in the mood to speak french"

"Oh, sorry milady" The hamster tried again in broken english. "My name is Simon Revenot. I need your help!"

"I'm not in the mood to help, either! I'm about to leave this wretched place! I need a bath..."

Dismayed, the ghost faded in the air. If only to appear again one second later in front of the witch, bent over with his knees and palms on the ground. "Please milady I beg you! My dear owner's tomb is being defiled as we talk! Someone has to help me!"

Lawhinie's ears perked, her curiosity awakened. "Defiled you say? How so?"

"Graverobbers! A band of thieves came into the cript and started digging the coffin of my owner. I tried to scare them, to make them leave her alone, I even tried to possess them but... it was futile"

Lawhinie sighed, stood up and tried to put her corset back in place. "They didn't even notice you, huh?"

"No, they didn't." Simon's shoulders slumped. "I'm too weak to cause any effect on them. But you, milady, you could go there and, maybe scare them away?"

"Scare them?" Lawhinie gave it a thought. On her current state, with ragged clothes and dried blood all over, she surely looked quite scary - by the wrong reasons - but still... "Why me? Enzo Moretti is around and your problem sounds like something he ought to attend"

The hamster cringed and fidgeted nervously with his fingers. "Umm... Master Moretti got angry and said I shouldn't even care about my human anymore. Then he sent me away in a most rude manner. He is wrong! Lady Adelaide was everything to me, she still is and doesn't deserve this sacrilegy! Please, help me make these thieves go away!"

"Ugh, that mummy of a mouse should care more about his slaves" Lawhinie declared while scratching her head. Next, not very convinced, called for her broomstick. "All right mister Revenot, I'll give your thieves a quick scare, then I'll leave this graveyard for good. So, lead the way I guess"

"Mercy beaucop, milady! Mercy beaucop! Please follow me!"

Not far away from there, in the southern side of Les innocents, stood an old marble cript with the inscription "Revenot" at the front. Its barren doors, though a bit rusty, were firmly secured with chains and locks. No human had entered there in decades. Deep inside, however, the sounds of chisels against stone echoed with singular cadence. The graverobbers, a mixed band of mice and rats, were breaking through the lid of a coffin as fast as they could.

"Come on!" A femenine voice with a pouty french accent ordered, pacing impatiently. "Are you not the greatest thieves of Paris? Gold and pearls are waiting for you, so break this stone already!"

"In my humble opinion, dear Désirée..." A short, filthy gray mouse in black leather armor dared to comment. "We should had called off this job after what happened in the morning"

"Nonsense, Pietro!" Désirée D'Allure, the leader of the gang, countered. "We will feel better about today once we dig out this treasure. And that's actually another good reason for you to work faster!"

The rest of thieves grumbled and sneered at Pietro, then doubled their efforts. All things considered, their boss was right. After what happened that morning to them, a treasure would be more than welcome. In fact they were lucky just to be there tonight, in good health, doing an fairly simple 'job'.

After some more minutes of intense effort, a loud crack was heard all the way out the cript, the lid finally giving up and breaking in half.

"Adelaide's tomb!" The ghost hamster, who had just reached the entrance, cried outraged. "These monsters broke it! I will never forgive them!" With these words, he darted inside and into the darkness.

"Simon, hold on!" Lawhinie exclaimed, following right behind him. "You can't hurt them, remember?"

The witch entered the crypt. A series of steps led her one level below ground, towards an old but well preserved chamber with niches carved in the walls. Every one of them occupied by human sized coffins.

Lawhinie spotted Adelaide's crevice at the left end, the one with dim lights of torches dancing over its lid. She approched there quietly. As expected, a band of graverobbers were there. Six of them, gathered around the sunken pieces of stone. They were coughing and waving off the cloud of dust they had just released. Simon was there too, punching kicking and biting the intruders rabidly. It was no use, as for them he was just a cold sensation in the fur, not much different from the night breeze of these late hours.

Lawhinie also took notice of the female mouse who was with them. A svelte hourglass figure, auburn hair to the shoulders, flirty green eyes. She exuded both an attractive and a quite dangerous aura, wearing a brown studded leather armor, tights, high boots and a set of knives on her belt. A black beret completed her outfit, a nod of femineity amid her manly choice of clothes. It was soon clear that she was in command, as she ordered one of the thieves to give her a torch, and then berated him when he stumbled and fell. Another thief grabbed the torch in a hurry and delivered it to the tall mouse, who by then was whipping her tail from side to side. Obviously unamused, she gave some more orders and then jumped in the coffin. Once she was out of sight, the thieves let out a relieving sight in unison. Their boss was truly scary.

Not much later, a golden cross was thrown outside. "Hey Pietro!" Désirée called. "Check that out!"

"Adelaide's cross!" Simon yelled at the top of his ethereal lungs, then jumped at the gray mouse who dared to touch the memento. Unfortunately, the hamster only managed to pass through the thief's body and land in front of him. That didn't refrain him from try again. "Put it back! Put it back, you devils!"

Simon's loyalty touched the right chords in Lawhinie's cold heart. It was time to act.

"Thieves!" The witch exclaimed, appearing out of the darkness and above of them. "Put that cross back in there, or I'll kill you!"

The thieves gasped in shock, their tools falling from their paws. "Th-the blonde witch!"

A pale Pietro immediately crouched next to the crack in the lid. "Désirée! The blonde witch, the blonde witch is here!"

"What!?" was the answer from inside. Then, fast as lightning, the slim mouse leaped out the hole. "Oh... so it really is you!"

Lawhinie got tense. The surprise scare wasn't working as planned. "What, you were expecting me?" She then glanced at Simon, who in return shook his head and shrugged. He as as dumbfounded as her.

"Oh my, what just happened to you?" Désirée gave the witch a derisive smile. "All that blood, torn clothes and messed up appearance. Did you got into a fight and lost?" She mocked. Suddenly, her expression darkened. "Men, shoot her down!"

"Goddamit!" Lawhinie cast her 'protection vs missiles' spell as soon as she saw the thieves reaching for their crossbows. Yet, a knife that bounced in front of her face the moment she finished the last motion of fingers took her by surprise. She just didn't notice it coming at all. Once she got her breath back, found that female named Désirée gritting her teeth and cursing under her breath, reaching for another knife to throw at her. The witch barely had time to glare back, as a barrage of bolts crashed on her magic barrier and made her waver in the air.

"Milady, be careful!" Simon shouted at her, unable to help in any way.

"Do not worry, I'm fine!" Lawhinie shouted back regaining her balance.

"We are not worried at all, all the contrary" Answered Désirée, believing the witch was talking to them. Next, she took a wooden stick from her belt.

"Is that a toothpick?" Lawhinie thought at first. Then, upon noticing the elaborated carvings in the wood, it was clear that stick was something else, something worse: a wand.

Her eyes got wide in surprise the moment a surge of electrical force was unleashed at her followed by a thunderous boom. The whole chamber lit in a blinding light, causing Désirée's gang to cover and look away or run the risk of go blind. When the moment passed and everything went silent again, they found Lawhinie laying on the edge of the crevice, trashing around wildly with her teeth and fists clenching and unclenching. The witch shrieked as electric arcs passed through her hair down to her feet and back. And yet, not a single member of the gang took pity on her. On the contrary, they licked their lips and slowly smiled at the chance of an easy kill and a substantial reward. Or it might be they just enjoyed watching others suffering. The gang laid their crossbows down and unsheathed their blades out, waiting for the signal to end Lawhinie's life.

"Ack!" Lawhinie grimaced at the last remnants of pain. Deep inside, she couldn't help but pray that the mortal wounds in her chest and back were still closed. She heard Désirée's order to kill and, fortunately, her body stopped contracting on the exact moment the first wave of emboldened thieves jumped at her. Swearing, she rolled away from them and jumped back on her feet. Not very graciously, though, as she swayed and had to take some steps back to regain her balance. These dancing moves ended up putting her against the edge of the coffin. And the thieves, instead of strike again as ordered, contended themselves to surround and throw a series of obscenities at her, a common practice for over confident gangs of murderers like them. Also, a move that gave Lawhinie precious seconds to regain her breath.

"What are you doing?" Désirée yelled with rage. "Just kill her already!"

The thieves finally reasoned that wasn't the best moment to state their crude intentions and lashed out at the cornered witch. Too late. Lawhinie crouched down and stomped her palms palms on the ground. On the act, a magical spider web of silvery threads emerged from the spot and extended in all directions, turning the entire niche in something akin to a glowing spider nest and effectively trapping the mice and rats in sticky silk.

Truly, people have got a primal fear towards spiders. Being caught in a web, unable to move and knowing that the struggle against the threads is a call for a eight-legged poisonous arachnid with protuberant fangs and plenty of red eyes. A ruthless being that will make you suffer as she bites and eats you slowly. That was exactly the horror the thieves experienced as they were rolled into cocoons of silk by the magical, almost sentient web. Suspended in mid air, some of them upside down, the only noises heard in the following seconds were muffled screams of shock and disbelief.

"Scared, are you now?" The black witch, baring her fangs, addressed the captive mice. "And just a second ago you were bragging about all the nasty things you pretended to do to me" The memory made her clench her fists. "There is no place, no place for you in my world, maggots! Begone with you all!"

The enraged mouse started waving her arms with her lips whispering one of his most dangerous conjurations: 'Death cloud'. This was the same spell she used against Chip and company back in the fields outside St. Pierre, which covered them in a fog of lethal and burning vapors. Here, in this enclosed and murky space without air currents to dispel the poison, her victims wouldn't last for long. Soon, a brownish pulsating orb appeared on her palm and slowly began to levitate, growing wider with each passing word.

She was already declaring the last words when a flicker of motion at her right made her turn her head. A flash of a blade, and Lawhinie's cheek was cut horizontally. Another cross flash, and her forehead suffered the same punishment. The jolt of pain made her lose concentration: the poisonous orb dispelled in the air. As the astonished witch raised her paw to the wound, she received a back kick to the stomach. Lawhinie was sent flying many steps away and landed hard on her back, out of breath.

"Aggghhh!" The witch cried out, covering her face with both paws and kicking around in the floor. Then, she looked up only to discover that vicious female mouse, Désirée, walking towards her and fidgeting with a blood coated knife. The spider silk withering away at her feet, unable to stop her.

"Ups, there goes your beauty, now you will never find a husband" The green-eyed thief commented with sarcasm.

"H-how?" Lawhinie asked, wiping the stream of warm blood from her eyes.

"Better safe than sorry" she answered with a sly grin. Then, showed a glowing ring on her finger. "After our unpleasant encounter this morning against your friends, I decided to add this enchanted ring to my gear, just in case"

The witch blinked twice. "Friends? What are you talking about?"

"The chipmunks, of course. A bard and a ranger. You know, the ones who are next to your wanted poster?"

Lawhinie almost couldn't believe it. She gazed down, her nostrils flaring and her pulse racing. Her teeth began to crackle, her tail rattled without control. Every hair in her body stood straight up. "They... are here?"

Désirée frowned, noticing how the witch suddenly stopped caring about her. "Tsk! Whatever, witch! We will just kill you and claim the reward on your head. We'll deal with your associates tomorrow. Now, allow me..." She raised the knife and struck down.

"They are here!" Lawhinie's mind voice boomed as the anger boiled up. "The archer, the bard... the girl!" In a blink, she took a hidden dagger out her sleeve, planted her talons firmly in the ground and blocked Désirée's stab. "No! I won't die!" She yelled at the thief. "Not here, not now, not by you! Yiaaargh!" Lawhinie's inner fury manifested as a sudden fire burst, one threw her attacker backwards.

_"Sabrina, father, my flames are back!"_

The magical spider web, as if responding to the witch's feelings, caught fire as well. Soon the whole niche was ablaze in an hurricane of living flames. The trapped thieves's desperate screams were added to fire, as they tried to get free by any cost now. But they just couldn't get free.

It was an inferno, with a raging blonde witch in the middle of it. "I'll kill you all!" She shouted blinded with vengeful ire. The fire, in response, made another sudden boom. Its flames began to devour the enwrapped thieves. These wretched mice were burnt alive amid screams of horror and pleads for mercy that never came.

Désirée D'allure made her way out the disaster coughing and stumbling. She was unaffected by the fire and heat, but no ring could offer protection against smoke in her lungs. Once safe, she dared to look back, only to catch a last glimpse of her gang consumed by the physical manifestation of the witch's anger.

With the corner of her eye, she also noticed Pietro climbing down the wall.

"Pietro!" She called to her second-on-command. "What are you doing? Come back here now!"

"No way, Désirée!" The one-eyed mouse answered, his voice shaking. "That's no witch, it's a demon! Run away from her!"

"We can still kill her!" The female mouse countered. "She is worth six hundred gold nuggets! Six hundred!"

"I don't care anymore! Look at what she's done, She burnt them all! Just forget about money!" Not a second later, the blanched Pietro jumped down the rope and ran away to the crypt's upper level.

"Go then!" Désirée yelled with all her strength. "Forget about splitting the reward! All the money will be mine, you hear me!"

The thief turned again towards the fire, and witnessed the witch coming out with a dark, furious expression on her blood-stained face; her mouth whispering inaudible words.

"More money for me..." Désirée whispered to herself. Despite the terrible vision in front of her, she still dared to smile. "Six hundred gold nuggets for one head. Easy!"

Fueled by her greed, she charged forth again. Taking advantage of her lightning speed, cantered to one side and then threw a stab right at the witch's jugular vein. Her opponent hardly had time to blink. One moment before the contact however, Désirée was tackled down from her right. Tackled by a figure in flames she used to know very well.

"Argh!" The french mouse grimaced as she hit the ground hard. She jumped on her feet immediately and looked up, only to find a rat standing right in front of her. Désirée struggled to contain the horror on her face at the sight of the red, burning corpse that was staring back with a wicked expression and smoke coming out his mouth. "It... can't be. Henry!"

Henry, or what was left of him. The hulking rat, dead but growling with anger, charged at his former leader. The nimble Désirée parried and countered with a series of desperate stabs, followed with a fierce kick to the chest. Henry stumbled and tripped on the half sunken floor, falling on his back with a loud thud. Désirée was just recovering from the impression when the flames all over the rat finally consumed him. He wouldn't rise again.

"What the hell have you done?" the horrified thief scowled at Lawhinie. "What's the meaning of this, witch?"

The black witch, in return, made a twisted smirk and ran her tongue over her exposed fangs. "It means I'm finally focusing"

Leaping out of the flames, another trio of dead thieves covered in flames engaged Désirée in close combat. Sucking her breath in, she defended the best she could. Avoiding an attempt to grab her from behind, she darted out to her right, twirled around and connected a high whirlwind kick to her aggresor, sending its burning head flying away. The corpse crumbled in front of her in a second death. Without delay, she ducked and rolled at the side of the next target. Her blades flashed, cutting horizontally the ankles of a mouse formely named August, which tripped and fell onto his face. Désirée ended his existence swifly, before he even had time to complain. As the female engaged with the last of the flaming zombies, she noticed Lawhinie raising herself in the air, whispering words and making waves with her paws.

The last attacker, a rat called Toulouse, rammed straight at Désirée. The female darted out aside and stabbed him hard in the back at the end of an elaborate twirl. Toulouse fell on the ground and thrashed around, a piece of blade deeply sunk in his flesh. His appaled opponent even wondered if he was still able to feel any pain under the scorched fur. The thought didn't stall Désirée long, and she finished the rat with a well-placed kick on the ribs that threw him down the coffin and into the ground five feets below. Toulouse would ended up becoming ashes moments before the impact. As she took at last look at the falling corpse, Désirée's eyes opened wide. The electric wand was lying at the edge of the crevice, just a jump away.

Désirée made a run for the magical item. Strange enough, Lawhinie allowed her to get away and return. The witch simply kept whispering her long enchantment one feet above the battlefield. She even kept her eyes closed, not caring about the result of Désirée's skirmish or the fate of her flame warriors. "Big mistake, shortie!" The thief declared with her confidence coming back. "Allowing me to recover my triumph card!"

Finally, the witch opened her eyes. She looked past the green-eyed mouse and raised her arms theatrically. With a booming voice, she exclaimed: "Arise, arise! I give you life and bind you to me! "

"Enough witch!" Desire cried out, disgusted with such dark deeds. "I'll make you regret what you've done!". Désirée aimed the tip of the wand directly at the terror above her but, before she was able to shoot again, the lid below her trembled. "What?"

With a ear shattering growl, the remains of Adelaide Revenot woke up from her slumber. The skeleton of the woman arose answering the call of the witch, throwing away the pieces of the lid. Her bone hands reached for Désirée, who just stood on her place frozen in fear and with her mouth hung open. The thief's legs responded a second too late, the fleshess hand caught and squeezed her. The pain of her body constraining made her scream out loud, inavertidely letting go the magic wand which fell off the crevice and into the darkness.

"Mon dieu!" Simon exlaimed aghast, falling to his knees. Twenty years had passed since he last saw his owner and now she was there there in front of him, her bare skeleton, with remains of silver hair and rags of a gown which used to be her favorite dress. A vision what was just to much for the loyal hamster to bear.

"No please!" Désirée pleaded almost suffocated. "Let me go, please!"

Unperturbed, Lawhinie floated towards her, dagger in paw.

"Wait, wait!" The female thief shook her head. Soon she found Lawhinie's gaze staring right at her green eyes. "I surrender, all right? I surrender!"

Lawhinie narrowed her eyes threatingly.

"Please..." Désirée's voice broke in tears. "Your friends... your friends didn't hurt us"

"My friends?" Lawhinie finally spoke, her voice trembling with ire. "They are not my friends! I'm not like them and you... you cut my face!"

With a roar, Lawhinie sunk her dagger straight into Désirée's heart. The thief reacted with a loud gasp and a body spasm. She then tilted her head aside with a vacant gaze, her green eyes losing shine, and finally, let out her last words in a whisper: "Mon...te...rey..."


End file.
